Watchwhers don't live forever (Closed, PLOT)

[ShadowReine]

"He's dead," the dragonhealer pronounced, softly. "Old age, nothing more."

The Lord of Ista Hold stood outside the watchwher kennel. He nodded. "Can your dragon take him between?"

Even a blue watchwher deserved that honor of dragonkind. And after many decades of faithful service...

Watchwhers lived a long time, longer than humans, but they did not live forever. Another egg would have to be found, brought here, hatched and carefully raised and trained.

"Yes," the greenrider said, nodding a little. "Then I will go back to the Weyr." She curtseyed, which looked odd in riding leathers.

The Lord found himself unwilling to watch the inevitable. He turned and walked away.

Ista had some handled whers, but not many and, currently, no queen. Crom had a queen, and Crom owed him a favor. Yes, that was what he would do. He would ask for a medium-sized egg...a brown or blue would be perfect...he did not want to risk ending up with a green who would Run on them...if it hatched green, he might even give it to the wherhandlers.

Greens were just too much trouble. But this...

...was no surprise. The old guy had been looking greyer and greyer each day. They had known this was coming.

It was just part of the cycle of life.

To be continued...

[ShadowReine]

"The miners have no eggs, but there is a gold at Nabol that has clutched."

"What are they asking for the egg?" the Lord asked his steward.

"Two breedings to Heart's Fervor, live foal guarantee."

He could not help but laugh. "I am not sure if that is a fair trade or not..." Heart's Fervor's foals were winning left, right and center, even against the best Ruathan lines. His stud fee was, thus, set high. "We'll take it. But see to it that it is a -small- egg. I don't want to risk us ending up with a gold and having to bond somebody to it."

Then, it would be no use for a watchwher, albeit a valuable animal in many ways, but the need for a new watch was more important.

"Of course." The steward bowed and then left.

A bronze would be bad too, they were intelligent and tended to get bored. But one had to take the risk...a watchwher was never loyal unless it hatched at the Hold it was to guard.

They would wait for the egg. And hope for Faranth's sake that it was not a gold. It was a shame the queens were not obvious, like dragon eggs...

[ShadowReine]

The egg sat in the watchwher kennel, carefully heated. Nobody was to be too close to it when it hatched, or it might bond to an individual instead of to the Hold.

The hatching, though, did not go unnoticed. Several of the Hold's firelizards set up their own watch, their gentle hum alerting the world that a birth was, yes, about to occur.

From a distance, the steward watched. He had positioned himself upwind, so the beast would not smell him, and the only other person near him was a drudge proven to be dragondeaf.

Crack! The single egg burst open. The drudge was the one with the food, for it could not bond to her, she moved forward a little, pushing the meat towards...

...the beast that stood revealed. It was a watchwher, smaller than a dragon with ugly, stubby wings, hard skin...it was a creature only its absent mother could love.

And it was a rich red-brown with a distinct metallic sheen. The steward let out a breath. He'd heard rumors of deformed firelizards...of a metallic blue at Ista Weyr, of a green so pale she was almost white at southern. Now this.

The hatchling launched itself at the food, eating well and voraciously. They would not chain it yet...and besides, now, the dragonhealers must examine it.

Who had ever heard of a metallic red wher?